Bridgeport police chief: Venues should pay cop OT

A Bridgeport Police Officer directs traffic for a Sound Tigers hockey game at the Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport in January 2017.

A Bridgeport Police Officer directs traffic for a Sound Tigers hockey game at the Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport in January 2017.

Photo: Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media

Photo: Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media

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A Bridgeport Police Officer directs traffic for a Sound Tigers hockey game at the Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport in January 2017.

A Bridgeport Police Officer directs traffic for a Sound Tigers hockey game at the Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport in January 2017.

Photo: Christian Abraham / Hearst Connecticut Media

Bridgeport police chief: Venues should pay cop OT

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BRIDGEPORT — When events are held at the downtown entertainment arena, the city’s police department assigns several officers to direct traffic and provide neighborhood security.

When students from Sacred Heart University, just over the border in Fairfield, get rowdy in Bridgeport’s North End, cops are dispatched to the scene.

But when the related tens-of-thousands of dollars worth of police overtime bills come due, Police Chief Armando Perez is not paid back. He dips into his stretched overtime budget.

So Bridgeport’s top cop wants the mayor and City Council to get the city’s entertainment venues, including the planned concert amphitheater, and local universities to pitch in — like they do in Hartford and New Haven.

“They should pay for overtime. Absolutely,” Perez said this week during a visit to the Trumbull Gardens low-income housing development to tout an increased police presence there. “I’d rather spend the money on this.”

How much money is Perez talking about? According to City Hall, the Marvel Universe Live! shows at the arena in early March cost $28,353 in police overtime.

Comedian and actor Kevin Hart’s March 17 visit earned cops a total of $8,285 in extra pay. And it costs $965 to staff officers for a mid-week game of the arena’s chief tenant, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers Hockey Team.

The total tab for a handful of college graduations hosted last year at the arena — city-based University of Bridgeport and Housatonic Community College, plus Sacred Heart, and Southern and Western Connecticut State universities — was $42,013.

And then there is the proposed amphitheater planned for the city’s now shuttered baseball ballpark, located next to the arena.

“My overtime budget is going to be blown in the first six months,” said Perez of the amphitheater, which officials hope will be open this time next year and draw big talent and healthy audiences. “It’s great for the city. ... But they (audiences) have to feel safe, and the only way to do it is by putting officers on the streets, walking, and in vehicles, and it just costs money.”

Bad Vibes

One problem is that Bridgeport has a long-standing contract with the Sound Tigers and one negotiated last year with amphitheater developer Howard Saffan that, Ganim’s office said, make the city foot the bills for traffic control and exterior police patrols.

In contrast, Hartford city officials told Hearst Connecticut Media that the XL Center and Xfinity Theatre pay back police overtime, which at the latter attraction can reach $50,000 for a popular music artist or band.

And Laurence Grotheer, spokesman for New Haven Mayor Toni Harp, said that city’s police department is partially reimbursed for overtime by large and small events, depending on a costs/economic benefits analysis.

Neither the Sound Tigers nor Saffan could be reached for comment for this story. But past efforts to force local venues in or around the still growing downtown to shoulder more expenses have been controversial, with operators complaining the costs will be passed on to their entertainers or their audiences, making it even harder to lure both to Bridgeport.

The annual Gathering of the Vibes summer music festival at Seaside Park had, as of early 2016, fallen behind on its contractual overtime payments by $400,000. This will be the third summer the Vibes have not returned to Seaside Park.

Neither the arena nor the Bluefish were pleased when last year the council took advantage of a new state law allowing a local admissions tax on ticket sales. Saffan, who is splitting the $15 million ballpark renovations costs with Bridgeport, paying an annual rent, and promising to support local charities and events, had tried to get the admissions tax waived in his deal with Ganim.

The mayor in an interview for this story said he agrees with Perez, but at the same time does not want to hurt the local economy, noting the planned amphitheater and arena “are huge for the city. We have to take that into consideration.”

Ganim said a compromise might be to set aside the ticket tax revenues specifically for related cop costs.

But Ganim’s administration has also opened itself up to criticism that it treats events differently. City Hall, as Hearst reported in February, has been trying to charge non-profit parades for police overtime, frustrating and angering organizers.

Back to School

When it comes to the city-based colleges, Perez said the University of Bridgeport pays his department $71,000 a year for a cruiser and two officers to provide regular patrols around the South End campus.

“Sacred Heart could at least do that,” said Perez, whose officers are often called upon to break up large parties held by students renting apartments in Bridgeport’s North End. Perez said Sacred Heart will sometimes pay for an extra officer on a weekend.

In April Bridgeport police made five arrests after busting two parties, each attended by about 100 Sacred Heart students.

“That uses up a lot of our overtime,” said North End Councilwoman Michelle Lyons, who helped enact an ordinance allowing the city to bill landlords when police repeatedly respond to “large non-permitted gatherings affecting the quality of life.”

Deb Noack, Sacred Heart’s director of communications, said the university “routinely hires” off-duty Bridgeport and Fairfield cops for events and works closely with the former in the North End, paying “for extra patrols during specific weekends.”

She also said that Sacred Heart is building more on-campus residence halls and provides provides numerous benefits to Bridgeport, including: $826,000 in annual revenues through taxes or state aid-in-lieu of taxes; 5,500 jobs; over $85 million worth of direct spending by students; over 100,000 yearly community service hours.

Noack concluded: “Sacred Heart officials are always ready to sit down with the police at any time to discuss how we can improve this situation for all the members of the community, including our students — the vast majority of whom are responsible contributing members to the Bridgeport community.”

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